A Touch From the Heart
by Labby01
Summary: Delia Ainsworth is slowly becoming deaf and blind due to Usher Syndrome. With less than a year left before her two most important senses go forever, she is reluctant when her father offers to take her to the beach for the summer. But this fateful decision
1. Chapter 1

Delia Ainsworth

"Why don't you go outside?" my father asked me hesitantly, with every intention of forcing me outside of the house for the day.

I sat on a stool in the kitchen, facing the bar-like table that held a half-eaten bowl of Cheerios. Milk was splattered in several places around the table, and the spoon plopped into the bowl, ready to fall out.

"That's okay, dad," I answered with a sigh, giving my father a look of disgust. I suddenly stood up from the stool recalling the mess in front of me and headed to the sink with my cluttered bowl.

My father saw me, looked at me earnestly, and soon began to protest. "I can do that, Delia. Don't worry about it."

"It's fine," I said, as I refused to allow my father to take the bowl from my grasp. I marched quickly to the sink, so that I could prevent my father from taking the bowl. Soon, I found myself falling, tripping over my own two feet and landing on the ground. The Cheerios and the milk splattered in a million different directions on the hard wood floor and even on parts of the Oriental rug that my dead mum cherished so dearly. My arm landed on the spoon, and it left a mark and began to bleed.

Overall, my injuries were not too terrible. I've had worse. That was just a minor wound and a few bruises. I would cope.

"Sweetie, are you okay?" my father hurried over to help me up. I smiled as I grabbed a hold of his hand and tugged on it to bring my two feet to the ground once more.

"I'm fine," I answered, regaining my balance. "I'm just going to get a Band-Aid and then I'll clean this all up. Sorry about the mess."

"It's okay," my father answered, in a somewhat dual sided tone, happy, but worried. He was always too kind with his words. It really wasn't fine. I had done it too many times ever since I had gotten that dreaded diagnosis.

_I was six years old when my problems first started… or at least when they started noticing my problems. I joined a gymnastics class and the instructor noticed I had this terrible balance problem. I couldn't walk a step on the balance beam and I fell every time that I jumped on the trampoline. Mrs. Stevens told my parents that it was unusual for a child to be as uncoordinated as I was. My parents grew angry at her for saying such a thing about their perfect princess. They took me out of the class and they didn't think about the problem for several more years. _

_When I was twelve, I had one of those vision and hearing tests that the schools required. I had been to the eye doctor before, but nothing had ever been wrong until that test. I had trouble seeing the tiny numbers, written at the bottom of the display. And when I put on the headphones to listen to the sounds that I was supposed to identify with a raised hand, I did not hear much of anything. I saw other kids around me raising their hands quite a few times and I just heard a noise once or twice. I soon improvised, copying off of the others, wanting to be normal, but I could tell by the proctor's expression that something was wrong. I had failed the test._

_My parents were notified of the results shortly afterwards. They took me to specialist and soon, it was determined that I had Usher Syndrome, which causes hearing impairment and retinitis pigmentosa, which causes blindness over time. Some people with the disease also can have balance problems. So that episode from gymnastics class was a real concern. Mrs. Stevens was right and my parents felt awful for ever doubting her. _

_Since I was twelve, I knew enough to know what that meant. I was going blind and deaf. I would have trouble walking without falling, just because. I had a disease. There was something terribly wrong with me. I asked my parents to find me a cure, but they couldn't. No matter how much they wanted to fix me there was nothing that they could do. _

_I fell into a depression for several months. My parents dragged me to therapy and it took me those months to realize that I had to cherish the time that I had left. For awhile I would be able to see and hear and balance problems weren't at all too bad. I just had to be careful._

_When I was fourteen, my vision problems grew worse. I had night blindness, which meant that I was not able to see in dim light. It sucked, to put it lightly. None of my friends knew about what was wrong with me and when I bumped into the lamppost and their stereo system and whatever else was around at night with light out, they would get upset with me. I just couldn't let anyone know that I had a disability, even if I had to give up those friends._

_At the end of the school year, right after I had turned 16, I began to have blind spots. My vision was fuzzy and there was nothing I could do to stop it. My hearing was starting to get worse as well, and I was on my way to becoming completely deaf. Not exactly what your average teenager goes through. _

_So my father suggested this trip. He planned on renting this summer house at the beach. He told me it was a good way to get away from the realities of the world, but I knew that he meant for me to have an opportunity to see and hear the beach for the last time before my world went completely dark. He knew that the beach was one of my favorite places in the world, with its peaceful atmosphere and sounds of tranquility. He knew that I would enjoy it as a last memory of sight and sound. Even though I went along with it, I wasn't sure if I agreed with him. _

I ran to my room to grab a Band-Aid. I had three boxes of them, as the balance problems seemed to get worse, along with the vision and hearing problems. I was unusual in that way, as with most cases balance was not a huge deal. Heck, in most cases, there wasn't even a balance problem. Lucky me.

I quickly applied it to my wound, after putting on some antibacterial ointment to prevent infection because on top of everything else, I didn't need an infection as well.

I then walked slowly back to the kitchen, ready to clean the spill I had made. Before long, I noticed that the spill was gone, and everything was cleaned. "Dad!" I shouted. "I said I would clean it up."

"I didn't mind doing it," my father answered. "It's not a big deal."

"I said I would clean it up," I repeated, with anger evident in my tone. I just wanted to be normal, and to be treated normally. My father was caring and kind and a good man, but he just didn't understand. I only had a little while longer until I wouldn't even be able to dress myself without problems. I needed to be treated as a regular teenager until then.

My father had on a look of sympathy. He was really trying. I knew it wasn't all that easy to put up with me… not being normal and everything. I don't think I was exactly what he was expecting when he begged so vehemently for a baby. He probably should have chosen the child to the left at me at the orphanage that day.

I couldn't take my father's look. I could see rather distortedly for at least a little while, but his expression was not what I wanted to see. I ran to the door, opened it, and started to run outside.

Of course, I tripped on the way down the stairs, but I kept going. I slowed down in pace, but I kept going. It was the first time I really took a look at what was outside of the summer home that I was living in. I had shied away from the public because I didn't want them to see me. Even though I still had my sight, I was deformed.

I had scars and bruises all around my body from all of my falls. I didn't want to show off my body around all of those perfect teens, with the perfect trims and ideal summer tans. I would look hideous. Me, with my pale skin, and shoulder length black hair, displaying scars that looked like battle wounds... I just couldn't do it.

Even now, without a bathing suit on, I was still subconscious, but I had to get away from the house for awhile. And of course, I was wearing a sundress at that moment. It cut off right above my knees, displaying a rather large cut that had just formed days ago, and it barely had sleeves, leaving my arms bare for onlookers to notice any other wounds there. I was not a pretty sight.

I walked in the opposite direction of the crowd. There was this small cliff that no one touched, so I went for it. I started to climb it, as it did not seem too high. I stumbled several times along the way, but the kinds of bruises that formed from the climb no longer hurt me. I was all too used to it to even flinch or squirm.

I finally made it to the top, and I had to admit that it was a lot higher than I imagined it to be. I settled into a sitting position as I dangled my feet off the edge, letting the air press coolly against my legs. I listened carefully for the pounding of the waves, but with my dimmed senses it was difficult. I used to enjoy the sound of the waves; now, it made me depressed.

I tried to watch the sunset, but, with my fading vision, it was no longer as clear or pretty as I once knew. My father wanted me to visit the ocean, so that my last memories of sight and hearing would be pleasant, but they just weren't. It was such a struggle to even try to enjoy the sounds of the waves or the beauty of the sunset.

I felt the tears start to form in my eyes and before long streams of wetness came pouring down my face. I covered my face with my hands and I started rocking back and forth, terrified of the life that was laid out in front of me.


	2. Chapter 2

Remus Lupin

"Are we there yet?" the bespectacled boy that was one of my best friends asked for about the millionth time. His hazel eyes stared intently at the signs on the road and his legs shook up and down, anxious and unwilling to sit still.

"Five more minutes, love," his charming fiancée, Lily, answered back. "We'll be there soon, I promise."

_Thank Merlin. _

I mean, I guess it was my idea to use the Muggle system of transportation for the trip, but if I had known what that involved, I would have never dared suggesting it. Between James's constant complaining, and Sirius's muttering and random singing, the journey was much longer than I imagined it would be. I suppose that I should have known since both of them were Purebloods. They'd never been on a road trip before. They didn't know how to act on a long journey.

"I can smell the ocean!" Sirius soon proclaimed. "We're almost there."

"That's just what I said," Lily rolled eyes, turning the wheel of the '75 green Civic that Lily's parents agreed to let her drive for the week. She took a right turn off the highway and we were several meters closer to the beach that was awaiting our arrival.

"_99 bottles of Butterbeer on the wall, 99 bottles of Butterbeer. Take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of Butterbeer on the wall_," Sirius sang, joy in his voice.

"Come on, Padfoot," I shouted, "You were just at 9. Did you really have to start over?" He'd been doing it for four hours, nonstop. Enough was enough.

"I lost track," he answered. "No reason not to start over."

I sighed. Lily sighed. Peter sighed as well. James and Sirius had to be the two worst travelers ever. On the way back, I planned on telling them to just Apparate home. Lily and I and maybe Peter could do the journey back alone. Another four hours of songs and complaints was going to make my brain explode. And the trip was supposed to be relaxing.

"We're here," Lily finally announced as she pulled into the driveway of a delightful cottage, adjacent to the waters of English shore. It was quite quaint with a dirt brown colored roof, and a white exterior. It only had four bedrooms, but that wasn't really a problem. James and Lily didn't mind sharing.

I walked out of the car, soon to be followed by the rest of my mates. I heard the slamming of the car doors, followed by the gleeful singing of Sirius with James joining him not too long afterwards.

"_96 bottles of Butterbeer on the wall, 96 bottles of Butterbeer. Take one down, pass it around, 95 bottles of Butterbeer on the wall." _

Luckily, James joined in on the singing that time, so Lily had the opportunity to speak. "James, dear, I think you have a wonderful voice and everything, but if I hear you singing that song one more time, I might just leave you."

The singing instantly ceased. Even though James knew it was a joke, he did not want to risk it. Lily was everything to him. "Sorry, love," James apologized.

We walked into the cottage, luggage in hands, waiting to be blown away by the wonderful dwelling of our vacation. Instead, it was a rather broken down, rusty shack that had probably not been occupied in years.

"I thought you said it was big and amazing," James asked, turning to Lily, somewhat startled by the look of the cottage.

"I guess not," Lily answered. "It was probably just because I was a kid. Because everywhere I went as a kid seemed spectacular." The cottage was owned by Lily's parents. She and her family used to go there every summer until she started attending Hogwarts. When we all graduated, we wanted to take a trip together before starting our own careers, and Lily automatically thought of the cottage that she vacationed at as a kid.

"That's okay," Peter announced, "We'll probably spend most of our time at the beach anyways."

"Always the level-headed one," James patted Peter on the head as praise. I became somewhat annoyed because I usually got that compliment. I was the one that brought sense to the Marauders and I was the one that kept everyone at peace. But I guess I couldn't make it too big of a deal. Peter deserved some credit every once in awhile.

"I found my room," we heard from Sirius, who had been particularly quiet in the last several seconds. "I've already put my things down and claimed it."

Lily ran up the creaky stairs, wanting to know what bedroom he claimed. She soon shouted at him and demanded him to move his trunk. "That's our room," Lily yelled. "It's the biggest and there are two of us sharing it. If you were sharing…-"

"I don't mind sharing with you, Lily," Sirius had a wide smirk on his face.

"Out!" she yelled.

Sirius pointed his wand to move his trunk to the nearest bedroom. Peter and I walked up the stairs as well to put our trunks down. Peter and I claimed whatever room we found first. He was probably correct in assuming that we wouldn't be spending much time in our living quarters anyways, so rooms didn't matter. And it's not like it was something that a simple spell couldn't fix anyways.

My room was relatively cramped. There was a twin sized bed that took up much of the space and a small dresser to the side of the bed. There wasn't even a closet so that I could hang up my clothes. Immediately, I grabbed my wand, plainly flicked it, and watched to see my room expand and a closet appear.

I then grabbed my trunk, placed it on the now queen sized bed, and held my wand up, ready to start the job of unpacking.

Before I even took out my first shirt, I found a jubilant Sirius sitting on top of my trunk, swimsuit on, and towel in hand. "Come on, we can unpack later. There are some ladies waiting for us out in the sun," Sirius managed to say.

He was right. I didn't really want to unpack right away. After the painful trip, I just wanted to relax. I wasn't as into the lady bit as Sirius, but I wanted to lie under the sun, carefree and at ease. It was a good thing that the full moon was still two weeks away.

"Okay," I answered back, trying to convince myself that for one entire week I would be able to enjoy myself. To not worry about a thing. "I'll meet you downstairs."

Sirius ran into the other rooms to tell them all to get dressed, while I changed into my swimsuit. I put on a shirt as well, as I was not ready to show the world the scars hidden beneath. If we did happen to go swimming, I would just keep it on anyways.

Within minutes, Peter, Sirius, and I stood at the front of the cottage with our swim trunks on and our towels in our hands. James and Lily decided to stay in while we explored the beach for the first time.

We all walked outside. At least the location of the cottage was nice; barely any walking was involved in order to make it to the beach.

My toes began to feel the smooth, crinkle of the sand. It was warm as it invaded my sandals, reminding me of the times when I was younger. Those times that I went to the beach with my family. My younger brother trotting along with a sand bucket in his arms, falling along as his short and stubby legs became used to the feel of walking in the sand. My father throwing me a Frisbee, expecting me to catch it somewhere along the shoreline. My mother taking pictures, making sure that the memories would last forever. When I was a child, everything was so much simpler.

"Look at that," Sirius interrupted my thoughts, as he made a statement of joy, with absolute glee apparent in his eyes. "This is going to be one fine week!"

We approached the main area of the beach and soon I realized what Sirius was talking about. The whole beach was filled with quite attractive gals. There was some male competition, but it wasn't like that was going to stop Sirius.

We walked closer to the crowd of people and Sirius immediately laid out his towel next to an attractive blond. I rolled my eyes and then watched as Peter found a spot next to a brunette a little further down the shore.

As for me, I walked further. I wanted a more private section. I wasn't there for love or whatever Sirius and Peter were looking for. I just wanted to relax, carefree for a couple of days before the real world set in.

I spotted a cliff several meters away from the general population of vacationers. It didn't look too intimidating, and it seemed like a nice, secluded area of relaxation. There I would be able to listen as the waves splashed against the shore. The sun was starting to set as well, so I could watch the sunset, without the fear of what the moon would do to me.

By the time I made it to the cliff, I had to take a break to catch my breath. It was a lot further than I first thought and I wasn't used to walking along a sandy path. But as soon as I was able to breathe normally again, I started up the cliff.

It was somewhat of a difficult climb. It didn't look as intimidating as it actually was. I stumbled several times along the way, almost falling down to the ground in one instance, but I did eventually make it to the top, after muttering to myself two or three words that I typically did not like to use.

And at the top there was a surprise, which annoyed me quite a bit. Once I had made it to the cliff, I didn't look at the top to see if anyone had already occupied the area just because I didn't think anyone else would want to be secluded from the crowd of hot girls. But I was wrong.

Sitting in front of me was actually a rather beautiful girl as well. She had shoulder length black hair pulled into a half ponytail. Her skin was pale and flaky, and she had several bruises running along her arms and legs. She was wearing a dress – it was yellow and it had flowers of purple, red, and blue. It cut off right above her knees and even hidden beneath those scars, she looked beautiful.

At that moment she was curled in a ball, her eyes hidden from me as her hands covered them. I could hear her crying and it was evident that she was distressed. And without further thought I bent down next to her, ready to offer my help.

"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned about the stranger.

She lifted her head up, jumping to her feet, as she realized that she was no longer alone. "Just peachy," she answered as soon as she found her voice, "Thanks."

Her eyes stared up, but not exactly at me. They were more positioned towards the sky. They were grey like Sirius's, but they had a kind of sadness to them and some type of dimming to them. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize someone else was here. I should go."

"No, I was just about to leave," she refused. She then started to look at me more intently. Her eyes stared at mine and I could tell that she was slowly searching through my facial features, eventually staring down to examine the rest of my body. It was actually quite cute, how unsubtle she was.

She soon started to walk away. I tried to stop her, feeling terrible that I caused her to stir. "You don't have to leave," I tried to convince her, "We can share this spot."

"I need to go," she resisted. She started walking quicker down the uneven surface and it seemed as if she was having trouble keeping her balance. I watched, cautiously, wanting to help her, but not wanting to be the creepy stranger. But as she was halfway down, she stumbled completely and she started to fall towards the ground.

I rushed down the cliff to help. To try to stop her from falling or do whatever I could to make sure that she wouldn't get too hurt. I was not quick enough to stop her from falling all the way down, but I did make sure that he landing was not too rough.

"Of course, of course," I heard her mutter as soon as she landed on the ground. I held out my arm to help her up, and she graciously accepted, as soon as she saw that I was there. "Thank you," she smiled.

"Are you alright?" I asked again, concerned about her.

"Marvelous," she answered. She then surveyed her body, looking for her injuries. It seemed as if her legs were badly bruised and had some scrapes on them. Her arms were a little wounded as well, but not quite as bad as her legs.

"You're bleeding," I did not buy her previous statement.

"Am I really, Sherlock?" she questioned. "I would have never known." Okay, so maybe it was a pretty stupid statement, but I was just trying to help.

"You're not okay," I added in. At least that made more sense.

"I've had worse," she answered quickly, without thought. She then covered her mouth, as if she hadn't wanted that fact to slip.

I soon put two and two together and realized what the scars on her body meant. "Wait. Does this sort of thing happen to you often?"

"I have terrible balance, okay?" she answered honestly. "No big deal."

But I was worried. Because she was a teenager, probably about 17, and I knew that plenty of teens had troubles. Even though I didn't know her, I didn't want her to be hurting herself. She didn't even know what real trouble was. She didn't have to worry about transforming during every full moon and worrying about a Dark Lord who was ready to take over the Wizarding World.

"Damn," she soon said, as she circled around, searching for something, "I can't find it."

"Your home?" I soon asked.

"No, my airplane," she answered, "I left it parked here somewhere and I can't find it anywhere…-"

"I'm just trying to help." I was starting to get annoyed. I had only been kind since I ran into her, and she was cold and demeaning. I almost didn't want to help her anymore, but it's not like I could run away from her. I wouldn't be able to walk away from anyone needing help.

"Well, I don't need any!" she seemed to shout, her grey eyes turning sour. She rubbed her arms, as she tried to stop the bleeding and she turned towards the ocean, staring at it like it could guide her home. "I'm such an idiot," she muttered under her breath. "I knew I shouldn't have left," she thought she spoke in a whisper that I wouldn't understand. It was relatively loud for a whisper and I could hear each word.

"Look, I'm staying in a cottage just a little further down shore," I offered. "There's a phone there. You can come with me and call whoever can help you get home."

"I'm not a lost little kid," she protested. "I can find my way home." She seemed to be trying to convince herself more than me. I could tell that there was a little more to her than just the troubled teen. She just was unusual.

"I know that," I reasoned, "But maybe you can come to my cottage and get cleaned up. It's really not far from here. Just right there," I pointed to the shack. It really was not a long trek from where we were standing.

She tried to concentrate on where my finger was pointing. "I don't see it," she managed to say.

"Just right behind that group of people," I pointed my finger, trying to guide her eyes to right spot.

"I don't see them either," she was frustrated. "But whatever. Just as long as you promise you're not some pervert or anything, trying to take advantage of me."

"You think I would admit it if I was," I teased. She was overly sarcastic. Maybe a little humour would help her to ease up. 

"I guess you're right," she started walking to where my finger pointed. "I'll take my chances then."


	3. Chapter 3

Delia Ainsworth

Do you know what it's like to not be able to see what you're looking for? I mean really to be lost in the sense that your vision is incapable of finding the place that you just came from? And to be stuck with a strange boy, who happens to be cute and kind and caring, but who also could be anyone… murderer, rapist, news reporter on ugly looking teens.

I think I went along with him so willingly because part of me didn't mind if he was a murderer. Part of me wanted to live a little dangerously because I was so overprotected at home.

---

I went along with the boy's plan. I followed him to the cottage that he pointed to in the distance that I had no chance of actually seeing from that far away.

I became more and more frustrated with myself as I walked along the shore with Remus Lupin, as he soon introduced himself as. It was my fault for ever leaving the cottage. I was angry and upset, but I should have known that I would get confused. That I wouldn't be able to find my way back because that stupid visual sense that had blocked the cottage from my view. And no matter what way I turned, I just couldn't find it again.

"Delia!" he shouted, interrupting my thoughts. "Did you just hear a word of what I said?"

"No," I answered, soon upset that I had actually told him my real name. I mean, his most definitely had to be made up. Who would actually name their kid after some Roman legend? "Sorry, I was just thinking." But I probably wouldn't have heard him anyways.

"About?" he was nosy, delving more into my life.

I sighed, focusing on his eyes for a moment in time. From what I could tell they were blue, but for some reason I could see something more in them. Like some sort of struggle. "Just about how long it took you to come up with that name," I lied. I guess I was sort of thinking about it, but not really.

"I didn't make it up," he sounded sincere.

"You don't happen to have a brother named Romulus, do you?" I laughed as we walked closer to the crowd of people from the beach. I tensed up, not really wanting to walk near them, but having to do it in order to eventually make it home.

"Very funny," he answered back, as I concentrated intently on what he had to say. I had to in order to hear everything correctly. "But why would I pick my name to be Remus if I made it up? You'd think that I would pick Romulus."

He was right. Romulus killed Remus. Why would he pick the name of the dead brother instead of the one that founded Rome? "You got me there," I answered. "So your mum picked it out so that it could match your last name or something? She must have had fun with that." I thought of the name Lupin, which I knew had something to do with a wolf. And Romulus and Remus were brought up by a she-wolf, according to legend.

"Actually it was my dad. He thought I was a cute kid."

"Cute kid?" I asked. What did that have to do with his name?

"Cute fit," he answered. "The name… he just thought it went well together."

"Oh," I answered, embarrassed. I should have just kept my mouth shut. I didn't need him to figure out that I was on my way to becoming deaf. Not saying anything and acting as normal as possible would make that easier.

At least that's what I learned in school for awhile. The school I went to before the special school for the deaf and dumb and disabled that my parents made me transfer to. As my problems grew worse, I just stayed silent. I lost a bunch of my friends, but they never did find out my biggest secret. Only those in that special school knew and that was only because they had to know. And because they were like that too. We all had similar problems.

We walked silently until we finally reached the cottage. It wasn't actually as far as I suspected… my vision was probably getting worse by the day. The doctor did say that I probably had less than a year left before it was gone completely. Even less than that for my hearing.

"You might want to stay outside first," Remus directed me, as he found his key to open up the cottage. "I'm not quite sure what my friends are doing in there."

"Oh," I answered, realizing that there were other people that I would have to come in contact with. I didn't think that he would be bringing me to a place with other people. I didn't want other people to see me, but that was still my only option. And I didn't really want to stay outside, while he caught up with his friends. "That's okay." It wasn't like I would see anything anyways.

Remus knocked on the door first, giving warning to his friends that we were coming. He then opened the door and shouted, "Lily! James! I have company. We're coming in, in a minute." He then shut the door and waited for a bit.

I focused my eyes around the outside of the cottage, realizing that it seemed rather nice. It was white and somewhat round, but from what I could tell it was a nice place.

Soon, Remus opened the door again. I hesitantly followed behind him, hoping that for some reason Lily and James were not there. Other people just made me nervous especially when I was so openly showing off my scars. I was hideous looking and I knew I shouldn't have ever bought that dress, but it wasn't like I planned on leaving the house in it.

As I walked in, I saw the view. It seemed just as nice in the inside. It was a bit small, but it was cozy. There was a grey couch in the living room and the telly was turned on.

"James? Lily?" Remus was surprised as he approached the two, cuddled up together, watching the screen.

"Hey Loony," a deep voice spoke, which made it difficult to hear.

"Loony?" I questioned, as I laughed. "That's a great nickname."

"Oh, you fought company," the man jumped up out of his seat. Yeah, my hearing was pretty terrible around him. He must have said, 'brought,' not 'fought.' "And I said Loony, not Loony," he corrected me.

_Damn_, I recalled thinking. I needed to learn to keep my mouth shut. I had no idea what meant. I would just have to ignore it. The situation had to end soon.

"You're not too good with that hearing thing," Remus teased.

I felt my face flush up, as I did not want him to sense that anything was wrong with me. I did not answer, besides a brief chuckle, hoping that someone would save me.

Luckily, the woman came over to greet me at that point and she started to talk. "It's nice to meet you," she stated, in her higher pitched feminine voice. It was much easier to hear what she was saying. "I'm Lily."

"Delia," I placed out my hand to shake hers. As I was doing so, I dimly saw Remus whisper something in James's ear. There was no way that I would be able to interpret the whisper, as I was way too far away.

"Why don't I help you get cleaned up?" Remus soon offered, looking at my wounded legs. He had been kind to offer help walking over, but I refused. In fact, I didn't even feel much of anything from the wounds from earlier. I just wanted to call my father and be on my way home.

"I guess so," I answered. I had to let on that it hurt though. I didn't want too many questions.

"You'll find what you need in mine and James's room upstairs," Lily told Remus.

Remus and I then walked up the stairs, just like Lily instructed. I hesitantly took to the stairs, making sure to watch carefully as I took to each individual stair. With my balance and sight problems, I had a good chance of tumbling to the ground.

Luckily that did not happen. Remus made it to the top of the stairs about a minute ahead of me, but I made it to the top without incident. Remus waited for me like a gentleman, and soon led me to Lily's room.

The room was relatively large as we walked in. It seemed as if it was bigger than what the whole cottage looked like from the outside, but that could have easily been from my distorted vision. "This is nice," I commented.

"Yeah, I haven't even had a chance to look at their room yet," Remus answered. "Here, sit on the bed and I'll be right back."

I obeyed, reaching my hands forward to find the bed. I made sure that Remus was not looking as I did it because he would surely suspect something from it. It just made it easier to find my way.

I did not observe the room too much. All I could look at were the basic necessities. As my vision grew worse and worse I found that staring too intently at details was not worth it. I would become dizzy and disorientated and fight a headache for hours. Even trying to listen too hard to certain sounds made me feel the same way… like listening to deep, monotone voices like James's voice. So instead I kept my eyes focused on the sight of my yellow sandals.

"Alright, I've got antibacterial ointment, Band-Aids, wet towels, and a phone," I suddenly heard as Remus appeared right next to me. I jumped at the sudden voice and close proximity of the man.

Some people say that when you lose a sense, your other senses grow stronger. So for me I should have a stronger sense of smell or something like that. But when Remus came closer all I smelled was sweaty armpits, and that smell wasn't even that strong.

"Is there anything else you need?" Remus then asked.

"I think I'm fine, but one question," I smiled.

"What is it?" he wanted to know.

"How did you pull a phone out of the loo?" I asked. That was obviously where he had been and it just did not make sense. No one kept their phone in the loo.

He laughed at my question. It was not to be taken completely seriously, so I didn't mind. "You're pretty perceptive, aren't you?"

_If only he knew. _

"I just grabbed it on my way back. You were staring at your toes at that point."

"I see," I answered, giggling slightly.

Remus then pulled closer to me, putting down the ointment, Band-Aids, and towels on the rather large sized bed that I was sitting on. He then handed me the phone and I readily accepted it from his hands. "Why don't you call your parents while I clean you up?"

I wanted to reject. To tell him that I could do it on my own. It was rather odd for a grown man to tend to a relative stranger's wounds. But I couldn't do that. He would watch me. He would see that I had difficulty putting on the ointment and he would grow suspicious. "Okay," I finally answered him.

I took a look at the phone and I waited several seconds until he focused his eyes on cleaning my wounds, before I started to dial the number.

It did not take long for me to connect to my father. And there was evident worry in his tone as soon as I talked to him. "I'm sorry about before," he told me, soon after I told him the directions to Remus's house.

"It was my fault," I honestly told him. "Don't worry about it."

"I'll come over right now," he said before he hung up the phone.

As soon as I put down the phone I felt as Remus applied the cool ointment to my skin, and rubbed it in, trying to make me feel better. I became lost in that feeling for just a moment because touch was something that I could truly feel. But I didn't know much about it… I was relatively inexperienced in the touch of the opposite gender, not related to me. And for some reason my heart started to beat just a little quicker as he touched me.

"Everything okay?" he finally spoke. I jumped up at his words.

"Yeah," I quickly responded, taking my eyes off of him.

"You saw, didn't you?" he then asked. I couldn't tell if I heard him correctly this time. I didn't know what he was talking about.

"I knew this shirt was too easy to see through," he explained, backing away from me. "You saw my scars."

"No," I quickly answered. "I didn't see anything." I really didn't. I probably wouldn't have even seen them if his shirt was off.

"Then why did you jump?" he asked.

"I…," I didn't have a good answer. I jumped because I was startled after realizing what his touch made me feel.

"They're hideous. I know," he said as he took a seat next to me on the bed.

"And what about mine?" I asked. I knew he had to have seen my scars. No one could miss them.

"What are yours from?" he asked, making me feel subconscious. Everything was centered at me for that moment.

"I fought a tiger," I answered quickly. Coming up with answers like those always helped me out. Sarcasm… my fallback.

"Oh really?" he asked as he laughed. "Bengal or Siberian?"

"White," I answered with a smirk. "If you think this was bad, you should have seen him."

"I can only imagine," Remus answered, still smiling. He had a beautiful smile.

"Now what about you? Where are your scars from?" I was curious.

"Wait, I'm not convinced with this tiger thing," he responded. "Now how did it happen? Why did you fight a tiger?"

"I was at the circus," I promptly responded. "They asked for a volunteer. My father raised my hand and they picked me. I went down to the ring and the cart carrying the tiger was passing by. I wasn't even supposed to be involved with the tiger act, but the trainer forgot to lock his door and he got out just as I walked by. It was so quick that I didn't have a chance to react at first, so that's why I got the scars. But as soon as I realized what was going on I gave him a quick punch on the nose. Then I kicked him… you know, right in between his back legs."

"Ouch!" Remus sort of laughed, but squirmed at the same time. I assumed that he had felt that before.

"Now what about you?" I asked.

"I fought a monkey," he quickly stated.

"Oh come on," I laughed. "You can't change just one word of my experience. I went through the humiliation of telling you that and you just mock me?"

"Fine, fine," he said. "A monkey bit me. But I did bite him back."

"Okay, that's a little better," I reasoned. "But let's make it a wolf… like your name."

He seemed to pause for a second as I suggested it, but then he responded, "That works."

"So why did you bite him?" I asked, ready to listen to his story.

"I was outside staring at the full moon one day," he started. "I was in my backyard and I started to walk into the woods. It was a nice night and I just needed to walk, to get my thoughts sorted through. As I was walking, I saw this grayish blur run by. I didn't know what it was, so I kept going. But I soon heard this howling sound and I grew worried. I didn't think there were any wolves in the woods, but I was wrong. Out of no where this creature came by and took a bite of me. My immediate reaction was to bite back, and I did."

"That was your immediate reaction?" I asked. "That seems a little weak."

"It's true," he defended his story. "He bit me, so I bit him. What's wrong with that?"

"I've never heard of someone biting back as an automatic reaction," I told him.

"So you think kicking a tiger in the balls is an automatic thing to do?" he asked. He did have a point.

"I did punch him in the nose first," I recalled. "I had time to think before I kicked."

We both laughed. Our faced were aligned with bright smiles. He was a pretty cool guy. "Can you at least admit that we're both a little bit odd?" he asked.

"You're not odd," I confessed. "You're cute." I quickly covered my mouth with my hand. _ Did I just say that out loud? _

"You are too," he automatically answered. We both looked at each other briefly, trying to interpret the other's thoughts. Did he really think I was cute? Did I like him?

"I…-" I started to mumble, but he didn't let me finish. His lips moved closer to mine and I reluctantly read what he was intending to do. Before I knew it, our lips locked together and his tongue slowly pressed against my lips. I instinctively felt my mouth open, allowing his tongue in. My eyes shut closed and a doorbell suddenly rang, breaking us apart.

"I'm sorry," he immediately said.

"I'm not," I answered, before I even thought about it. My first kiss. If a half kiss counted. I never thought I would get the opportunity, even if it was a little sudden.

"DELIA!" I heard the shouting voice of James interrupting our moment.

"I've got to go," I answered. _Way to be obvious, Delia._

"Meet me on the cliff tomorrow," he told me, as I headed for the stairs.

I started to think about his words and I realized that may not be the right thing to do. A relationship was not what I needed. And everything was moving so fast. Did I even really like him? Where did that kiss come from?

But maybe I needed to find out more. "What time?"

"10," he answered.

I walked down the stairs, slow once again, making sure that I did not tumble to the ground. I saw my father in the living room, standing with Lily and James, talking intently with the pair, while I concentrated on one step at a time.

As soon as I reached the bottom step, my father saw me and he ran over to give me a hug. In that hug, I could feel that he was perfectly content with what just happened.


	4. Chapter 4

Remus Lupin

Does anyone honestly believe in love at first sight anymore? Like the kind from the movies, where the girl sees the guy and is completely and irrevocably in love and the guy feels the exact same way. Can that really happen? Can two completely different people see each other for just a moment in time and be in love? Especially when one is a werewolf and there is something off about the other one that probably does not have to do with fighting a tiger.

---

"I can't believe Remus has been here one day and he already has a date," I heard the voice of Sirius Black. I couldn't believe it either.

"I can't believe that you don't," I admitted to Sirius. He looked quite displeased as I said it. He was the one who should have had the date already. That's how it usually went.

"I'm not sure which one is harder to believe, Sirius's lack of date or Remus's quick date?" Peter then spoke. His first day at the beach had been pretty crappy. His entire back was aligned with a terrible sunburn. If he wasn't a wizard, he probably would have been in pain for the rest of the vacation.

"Remus's quick date," James and Lily then answered at the same time.

"Thanks guys," I answered as I took the sandwiches that I had carefully concocted and put them in the picnic basket that Lily happened to bring with her. She was planning on using it for a date with James, but she agreed to let me use it for my date, if it could even be called a date. "Well, have a lovely day."

I picked up the basket and walked outside, heading for the cliff that I told Delia to meet me at. I was a bit early when I made it there, but I did not mind waiting. It gave me time to set everything up.

When about an hour passed by, I started to get a little anxious. She was already forty-five minutes late, and I had no clue where she lived. I began to doubt myself. I was an idiot for believing that she liked me at all. That kiss probably scared her off. She just wanted to be nice. To say that she wasn't sorry about it. But it must have really freaked her out and she probably was doing everything possible to stay away from the cliff for the day.

But then I saw her coming from a house in the distance, one that was relatively easy to see. Her wavy black hair was loosely hanging and she was wearing jeans, sandals, and a long sleeved tee. Her outfit was relatively out of place for the beach, especially compared to my swim trunks and shirt sleeved shirt – red this time.

"You're late," I said as she approached me, relatively out of breath.

"Sorry," she immediately answered, as her feet came to a stop. She stared away from me, which was a tendency that she had. "I was just studying to make sure that I knew how to get back home."

"You know, getting lost didn't turn out too badly," I answered her witty remark. She was always on top of things and as much as I favored the truth, I thought her sarcasm was quite cute. It's not like I was being completely honest with her anyways.

After a quick giggle, we both were quiet. We didn't know exactly how to greet each other. Would a kiss do? Would a hug be fine? A handshake was totally out of the question. I finally decided to go for the kiss and I approached her cheek with my lips.

She was not paying attention to me and she jumped away as soon as I touched her. She was a rather jumpy kind of person. "I'm sorry," I said. So our relationship wasn't that perfect romance. We didn't know exactly what to do in each other's company. It sure seemed like we did the day before. "I just wasn't sure how to greet you."

"I think a hug would suffice," she told me. I nodded and we came closer together, hugging tightly. She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before we pulled apart.

"Sorry. I didn't think I would do that," she informed me.

"Don't apologize," I stated, my cheeks growing red as I was sure I blushed.

"Now what do you have planned for us today?" she asked happily. I had just realized that somehow, she had driven me off the topic of her lateness. She was relatively good at that.

I then pointed to the beach blanket that I had set out with the picnic basket on top of it.

She laughed. "I should have guessed," she said as she walked over to take a seat, crossing her legs in her sitting position. I followed her and I took a seat across from her, stretching my legs out on the blanket.

"What do you mean?" I asked, curiously staring into her deep grey eyes. Her expressions were difficult to interpret.

"It's just not the most original idea I've ever come across," she explained.

Okay, so I had to admit that picnics at the beach were a little overdone, but who cared? She was making me completely self conscious about the idea. "It's the beach," I spoke in quite an obvious tone. "What do you expect?"

"No, no, it's fine," she smiled. She had a beautiful smile.

"Did you want me to take you out on a boat to go fishing? Or did you want us to go hunting for tigers and wolves?"

We both laughed. "This is perfect," she finally answered, as she opened up the picnic basket, observing what was in there.

"That's supposed to be my job," I said, as I scooted closer to her, trying to take everything out. My arm briefly touched hers and took a moment to pause and stare at each other. Touching her briefly felt like the transformation I went through each month, a tiny flutter of shock and an increased heart pace going through my system. For once in my life I did not mind a brief encounter of that feeling.

"Remus there are only two of us," she ignored my comment, after our pause ended. "Why are there like six sandwiches? I'm not a cow."

"I didn't know what kind you wanted," I muttered, focusing back on reality. My heart began to pump even faster as I conversed with her.

"So you made six different kinds?" she laughed. "Are there even six different kinds of sandwiches?"

"There's turkey, chicken, tuna, ham, cheese, and peanut butter," I listed. "Take your pick."

"I'll take tuna and ham," she answered definitively.

"So I did need to make you more than one," I teased, as I handed her the two sandwiches. She took them from my hand, somewhat struggling to grasp them.

"Well, I don't want them to go to waste," she explained, as she took the tuna sandwich and unwrapped the foil that I had covered it in. "And you're a boy, so I figured that you could eat four, so I'll take two."

"I'm not quite sure I can eat four," I stated, amused by her statement.

"Well, we'll see," she answered as she took a bite of the tuna sandwich. Her face soon covered in mayonnaise, which I neglected to tell her. I slightly chuckled as I took a bite of the peanut butter sandwich that I carried in my left hand.

"So what are you doing here?" she asked me in between bites. She certainly wasn't the most lady-like of girls that I had ever met.

"My friends and I all just graduated from school," I answered quickly. "So we decided to go on vacation to celebrate, before we all start our lives in the real world."

"How old are you?" she quickly questioned, not taking her eyes off of her sandwich.

"18," I immediately answered in a lie. I knew that the Muggle world required an extra year of school, and I did not want her to grow suspicious.

"Wow," she answered in awe. "You know that I'm only 16."

"Does age really matter?" I asked. Two years really wasn't anything, especially because it was really one year.

"As long as you don't mind," she answered, focusing on her ham sandwich now since she finished the tuna. I took another bite of my peanut butter sandwich, amazed at how quickly she ate hers.

Age really was not the big deal. The main problem was a little deeper, even if she could get past the fact that I was a wizard. Because I was a wizard with a problem.

And I had to question myself about how serious this thing could get. What did she expect? We probably lived several miles away from each other, and we had so many differences. Was she even thinking about the future as much as I was? Maybe not. Maybe I just had to enjoy the moment.

"Nope, I don't mind," I finally responded, leaning in even closer to her. I wanted to put my arm around her, but I just wasn't sure how she would like that. It's not like I had much experience with that sort of thing.

"How long are you here for?" she then asked me, her eyes still focused on the ham sandwich. The poor sandwich was almost all eaten, in only several seconds. And I was still working on my peanut butter sandwich.

"Just a week," I told her. That was the other thing. How serious could the relationship get in a week? We didn't have much time.

"Oh," her tone was disappointed.

"What's wrong?" I asked her concerned, but knowing that the time probably had something to do with her disgruntled response.

"I was just starting to warm up to the idea that this vacation wouldn't be all too bad, but you're leaving so soon." Did that mean that she really did like me? Because it sure sounded like she did.

"You didn't come here willingly?" Suddenly I was interested in why she was actually there. Maybe I would be able to find out a little more truth to her background. She barely gave anything away.

"Not really," she answered, seriously… I could tell. Her honesty was easy to decipher from her sarcasm. Plus, she put down her sandwich for the moment, as she talked. "My father wanted me to come here. He thought that I would enjoy it, but I'm not usually much of a people person. If this was my own private island maybe I'd enjoy it, but it's not, so now I'm stuck here for a whole summer."

"I'm sorry," I said, though I didn't really understand why she hated it so much. I wasn't a huge fan of being in big crowds too, but I had been looking forward to the trip for a long time. She didn't have to be around people.

"It's not your fault," she remarked as she took the remaining bite of the ham sandwich and then dived her hand in the basket again, picking up the chicken sandwich.

I laughed as I watched her pick up the sandwich and unwrap it.

"I'm hungry, okay?" she shoved it into her mouth, ignoring my laugh.

"And I thought James and Sirius ate a lot," I muttered.

"Are you guys really close?" she soon asked more details of my life. I wanted to know more about her.

"Like brothers," I answered her. "You met James, but there's also Sirius and Peter. We've known each other for seven years now and we've been best friends since the day we met. We were actually the biggest pranksters in the school. We're known as the Marauders."

She laughed. She actually spit some of her sandwich out as she reacted to my words. I dived my face out of the way, so that I was not hit my sandwich bits. "You have a name for yourselves? Hah! I remember those types of people… the ones who thought they ruled the school because they thought of a cool name for their group."

"Well, I'll have you know that we actually did rule the school," I answered, but as I thought about it I realized that it was a little cheesy. But it wasn't too terrible. Hogwarts was different from your everyday school.

"Sure," she continued to laugh, as she held her sandwich in her right hand. I actually finished my sandwich at that point, but I wasn't hungry anymore, so I did not try to compete with her as far as food quantity was involved.

"Fine, fine," I answered. "Don't believe me."

"What's it like?" she moved on back to her seriousness, questioning me, before I could ask about her again. "Having such a close set of friends and being so popular."

"The friend part is nice," I smiled. I was lucky to have my friends. They really were my brothers. They had always been there when times were tough for me. "I couldn't care less about the popularity. Take it or leave it, so long as I still have James, Peter, and Sirius. Even Lily now. She and James are engaged."

"Really?" she asked rhetorically. "They're so young."

"And they were mortal enemies until last year. But they found each other and they fell in love… true love."

We both grew silent at that moment. I couldn't tell if it because we were thinking about the meaning of love or if it was because of something else… like our own relationship? To tell you the truth, I don't think I was thinking about anything in particular… just staring at her dark eyes, which I just happened to notice were a bit cloudy. I couldn't think of a reason for that.

"I know this is a weird request," she suddenly spoke again, disrupting my thoughts. "But could you do me a favor?"

"What is it love?" Did I just say that? I sounded like Sirius.

"First off, don't call me that," she laughed. "Second, would you sing a song for me?"

"What?" I asked, in reference to the second request. I had never gotten that request before.

"Whatever song you want, I just want to hear you sing," she was being serious… no sarcasm at all. I didn't understand her request though.

"Never mind then," she said as she saw my puzzling expression.

"No, I'll do it," I promised. "I'm just trying to think of something to sing."

After thinking deeply about the song I wanted to sing, I turned to face her and I started to sing. I picked a song that had meaning to me.

_You fill up my senses like a night in a forest  
Like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain,  
Like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean.  
You fill up my senses come fill me again. _

I paused as soon as I finished the last words of the song. I was a terrible singer. Why did she want me to sing in the first place?

She didn't say anything for awhile. Her eyes were filled with tears and her body was motionless. "John Denver?" she asked after some deep thinking.

"You know it?" I asked, surprised. I was not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"My dad used to sing it to my mum," she said with a cracked voice.

"Used to?"

"She died last winter," she mentioned quietly.

Then, she changed the topic, "You have a wonderful voice." Her quick topic change made me realize that it was something that she did not particularly want to talk about.

I laughed, with the thought that my voice was wonderful. "If you say so." I wasn't sure where she got that from.

"Thank you," she answered. "This trip was worth it just for that."

I guess she did not mind the song, even though it probably brought back painful memories. I did not want her to have to think of those memories anymore if they were difficult for her. "Good, now can we do something that I want to do?"

"Depends," she muttered.

I did not wait to tell her though. I had been eyeing the water since we sat down and I had been extremely hot throughout our picnic lunch, wanting to go into the water. I knew that she was covered in long layers and the water would be good for her.

So I ran behind her and I picked her up. She was much heavier than she looked, but I could manage. I ran to the water with her in my arms and I heard her squirming and I felt her struggling to break free of my arms, "Let me down, Remus!"

But I didn't listen. I soon felt the wet sand, as I realized that I was almost in the water. She continued to fight me, but I didn't want to let her go… not until we were in the water. I knew that she was going to protest, so I did not pay attention to her moans.

As soon as I was waist deep, I let her down. I didn't throw her or anything; I just let her down softly. There was no way that she was going to be able to avoid the water though. We were already far enough in.

A wave came by just at the moment that she brought herself to stand on two feet. She was still protesting me and she was angry. "Get me out of here!" she yelled as a wave came by, soon overpowering her, and knocking her under the water.

I jumped over the wave, so that I did not become covered in the water like her. But then she stayed underwater for some time. She was not coming up_. Did she know how to swim? What did I do?_

But just as I was about to come to her rescue, I saw a head of black hair come up for a breath. I laughed, but she was not laughing. "Damn you!" she yelled, in a way that I could tell that she wasn't just playfully angry. She was struggling to breathe and I saw tears forming in her eyes. She must have kept her eyes open under water. That was a painful experience. "I need to go home," she said fiercely as if she were on a mission.

She started to swim, but she was swimming in the wrong direction, so I offered to help. I picked her up again and I could hear the sniffling worsen. It honestly wasn't that bad… just a little salt water, but she insisted on going home.

I remembered the house that she came from, which was a good thing because she didn't say anything as I held her in my arms. I just could tell that she was crying and that made me upset. _Why did I do that?_

We finally arrived at her cottage and I let her free from my arms. I knocked on the door, afraid of what her father was going to say. The first time he saw me it was because she had lost her way and she did come home with some wounds. This time she was teary and upset. I hadn't made a very solid first impression at all.

I soon found the man that I had seen the previous day standing behind the door. I recalled that he didn't look quite like Delia at all… his blonde hair and blue eyes didn't quite match her dark features, though they both had the pale skin.

She ran to him, grasping onto him, and finally hugging him. "She got a little salt water in her eyes," I told him. "She's just being a baby about it." I didn't want him to think that I hurt her. It was just salt water.

"Mr. Lupin," Delia's father spoke with a serious tone, much like the way Delia spoke when I realized that she was not being sarcastic. "She's not being a baby. She's losing her sight."

---

AN: The song is not mine. It is Annie's Song by John Denver.


	5. Chapter 5

Delia

My father was a special man… a kind person with a good heart. He married a good woman… a person who was relatively kind to me, but not as kind as my father was. But she died a little while ago, and all he had left was me. And I wasn't even really his. I was the disappointing kid that he picked up from the orphanage after he and my mother tried for several years to have a kid.

They said that my real mum dropped me off in a rush one day, sitting in a stroller outside of the orphanage. She didn't even fill out all of the papers… she just left me at the door. They took me in reluctantly. I wasn't really even wanted by the orphanage.

I was an easy baby… that's why they recommended me to Julia and Edward Ainsworth. That's why the couple decided to adopt me when I was only a year old.

They were the only family that I knew. Edward was the best father ever… in fact I never learned to call him Edward. He was 'dad' from the beginning. He was my guardian angel. But why did he have to go ahead and say that?

---

"Blind?" Remus mumbled, struggling to say the word. My father had scared him. Every amiable moment I had had with him would have to be forgotten.

I kept my eyes closed. I was too afraid to open them, afraid of what I was going to see… or rather, not see. Salt couldn't be good. Could it?

"That's why she's nervous," my father continued to explain. I wanted him to shut up already. Remus was already frightened enough of me. "She thinks that the salt may have caused her harm, but I think if anything the salt will make it better."

"Really?" I was surprised, as I suddenly opened my eyes. In front of me was a tall, blond man, who smiled at me when he realized that I could see him. "It's not any better, but it's still there."

I then turned to Remus. I imagined him to bare a face of terror, but he looked relatively calm. I took a deep breath. I had to explain to him. My father already told him the worst part. "I have Usher Syndrome," I said as I took a step outside.

I took a quick glance at my father to hint to him to go away. Luckily, he took the hint. "It means that I'm losing my vision, and my hearing. I also have balance problems, but you may have figured that one out."

I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds, giving him time to run before I could notice. That would make it all easier… if he just disappeared.

But when I opened my eyes back up, he was still there. He was still standing there, and he didn't even seem to be judging me. He just stood calmly, waiting for me to focus on him once more. "Is that why you made me sing to you?" he finally asked.

Of all the possible questions, he asked that one? "Err… yeah," I responded. "I was told that it will be less than a year. My hearing first and then my vision."

"I'm sorry," he said, as he came closer, pulling me in for a hug. I was used to the sorrow from strangers, but not from people that actually knew me. Well, I guess I didn't tell anybody that I knew about what was going on with me, but still. His touch sent a warmth and a calmness throughout my body that made me feel instantly better. How did he do that?

After what felt like hours, we broke apart, but he still held on to my hand, comforting me. He took a deep breath and a moment's hesitation before he spoke again. "Do you want to come over to my cottage again?" he asked.

"That's your reaction to this whole thing?" I asked, puzzled by his response. It clearly wasn't what I was expecting to hear.

"Yeah," he simply said, shrugging his shoulders.

"You're not terrified?" I asked. I had to make sure before I accepted his offer.

"Why would I be?" he pulled my hand closer to him and he gently kissed it. "That doesn't change who you are or what I like about you."

"You like me?" It was a lovely time to get feelings out of the way. We were being so honest and open to each other.

He hesitated briefly, and then he clearly said, "I like you."

A smile emerged widely on my face. I was happy… really happy. "Well, let's go to your cottage then." I knew that he was looking for me to pronounce my feelings back. I could see his face tighten, like he was frustrated, but it kept me at an advantage to hold back my feelings.

He sighed heavily as he started to speak again, "You should tell your father. I've already brought you back ruined twice. I don't want him to completely hate with me."

I quickly opened the door again, shouted into the main hall, and told my father that I was leaving. I knew he wasn't going to stop me. He fully supported anytime that I left the house.

"He doesn't hate you," I said as soon as I was ready to walk to the cottage with him. But as I took my first step, he stopped me.

"I'm not going to let you walk there," he announced. "That would be too dangerous."

"Oh yeah," I questioned. "Well how do you suppose that I'm going to get there then?"

But he did not respond to that. Instead, he just lifted me up, carrying me like he carried me out of the water. "I don't think so," I announced. "I am quite capable of walking on my own. I've done in for 16 years of my life."

He did not answer. He just startled whistling, pretending not to hear me. "Put me down!" I groaned. "Remus!"

I started kicking my feet, squirming around, and trying to break myself free of his grasp. He did not pay attention or flinch at my attempts.

We soon were close to the crowd of people. I hated that crowd, but there was no way to get around it. And there was no way that I would let him carry me in front of everyone.

"Okay, this is ridiculous," I angrily protested. "I don't want you carrying me in front of all those people." I pointed to the heavenly girls and guys of perfection. He put me down in an instant.

"Don't worry. I was going to let you down eventually."

"Why thank you," I mumbled reluctantly.

"Now just be careful. I don't want to see you get hurt again."

But I didn't reply. I didn't have anything I wanted to say. Instead, I grabbed a hold of his hand. I needed all the support I could get as I marched through the mob of perfect looking teens.

He seemed to want to get out of the crowd just as much as I did. Could it be that he was embarrassed to be with me in the public's eyes? It actually didn't seem like it. It seemed like he was embarrassed about his own self, but he had no reason to be. It's not like he had scars as bad as mine or an illness that he could not control.

We both hurried past the crowd, hoping to avoid looks of rejection. Eventually, we made it closer to the cottage again, ready to go inside. Remus knocked on the door and within several seconds a dark-haired man revealed himself.

"You must be Delia," he instantly stuck out his hand to greet me.

"Sirius or Peter?" I asked, recalling the names of Remus's other best friends.

"Sirius," he smiled, a bit monotonously, like he did not truly care to meet me.

"Like the dog star?" I asked, trying to gain his interest.

"Yeah… sure," he responded briefly.

"Well, it's nice to meet you," I smiled as he backed away to allow us into the cottage.

Remus and I walked slowly. I still held his hand, and I could feel sweat building up on his palm. Was he nervous about introducing me to everyone? Was he lying to me when he said he didn't care about my illness? Suddenly, I became nervous because I did not know what to do next as I walked into his vacation home.

As if he was reading my thoughts, Remus spoke at that moment, "Why don't you take a seat on the couch and watch some telly? I'll join you in a minute."

I felt his hand detach from mine and we stared at each other briefly as the action took place. "You know, I'll just walk you over there myself." He was extremely protective… just like my father. But for some reason I did not mind his help. It was actually quite charming.

He took my hand again and we slowly walked over to the couch. He helped me sit down when we made it there. "You're going a little over the top," I told him. "I'm really fine."

But he ignored me like he had done before. "I'll be right back," he said as soon as I was situated on the couch.

I sighed as my eyes slowly drifted off of him as he walked away. Soon, I turned my head to see that Lily was sitting on the couch too, watching the telly.

She talked to me briefly, adding in sweet comments on how much she was enjoying her trip and how good of a guy Remus was. I took that as a hint to not hurt him, but I'm not sure if she meant like that. She was a fairly warm person, but a bit too routine for my likes.

My attention drifted between the conversation with Lily and the conversation that Remus was having with Sirius. I ended up just focusing on the Remus and Sirius conversation because I was not too good at being able to listen to both. Muttering 'uh huhs' and 'yes' to Lily was enough to keep her talking on her own.

"Come on Pad," I thought Remus said. "We have to take her there." He had to be talking about me. "Pompy can fix it." Did that mean that Remus had just told Sirius my secret?

"You've known her for one day," Sirius's voice was easier to distinguish than James's. "You can't tell her anything."

"Remus!" I suddenly shouted. I was angry. They were discussing something about my life and it was obvious that Remus told Sirius about my illness. I had never given him permission to tell anyone.

Remus rushed over. I was upset with him, but they way that he cared… rushing so fiercely when he heard my voice - made me just a tad less angry with him. "Are you okay?" he asked me, coming into my view, taking a hold of my hand.

"I'm fine," I said. At that point Lily turned off the telly and focused on Remus and me. I certainly wasn't going to get any privacy. "But I would rather you not discuss that with anyone else."

"You heard?" he asked, sorrow in his eyes.

"Yes," I answered, not expanding upon my words. Lily still didn't know. I wanted as few people as possible to know my deepest secret, for it was not going to remain a secret for much longer.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. He meant it, as his tone was rigid and gloomy, like a puppy who realized his mistake of playing a bit too roughly. "But I think I know a way that I can help, and I needed to talk to Sirius about it."

"Shut up about it already," Sirius mused sternly as he approached the couch, where the rest of us were. "You can't say a word." Sirius was angry, his facial expression characterized by a rudimentary frown and darkened, intense eyes. Suddenly I realized that Sirius did not like me.

"What is going on here?" Lily soon interrupted. I had a feeling that she would become involved. That wasn't good.

"I want to take Delia to Hogwarts and Sirius won't let me," Remus announced, acting like a five year old, upset that his mummy did not buy him that piece of chocolate.

"Why?" Lily simply asked. I waited to hear the answer. I did not know why he wanted to take me to the Hogwarts place.

"I think Poppy could help her," Remus answered. Ah.. it was Poppy, not Pompy.

"Pomfrey?" Lily remained confused. "Why's that?"

I was not exactly sure who the Poppy person was, but I knew where the conversation was going. In seconds Remus would tell Lily about my condition and soon it would no longer be a secret to any of his friends. I shifted my eyes to Remus once more and I gave him the expression of a beggar. He could not tell.

I saw him open his mouth to speak, but the instant that my eyes connected with his, he closed it again. He gave my hand a tight squeeze and he answered the question differently from his original intention, "None of your business." It was quite a rude response, but I did not care. He spared my secret.

He was amazing.

Lily's eyes focused away from Remus after his brutal remark. She stared at Sirius for a moment, before speaking once more, "You've only known her for a little over a day, Remus. I don't think that's a very good idea."

"Fine," Remus answered, as if he was a spoiled brat. "I'll do it without your support." Remus swooped me off the couch and started to walk away with me in his arms. I was still bemused, but pleasantly surprised by Remus's loyalty.

"Remus, how are you going to get there?" Lily cautiously asked him.

Remus hesitated for a moment and stopped walking. He must not have thought that one through.

Suddenly, there was confusing movement and Sirius soon stood next to Remus's feet, with Lily next to him. "We're right by your side, mate."

By that time I was completely and utterly perplexed. They had just planned to take me somewhere and they weren't giving me any details. "So how are we going to get there?" Remus asked and faced Lily. She seemed to have a plan.

"I was thinking of bringing Pomfrey here, instead of going to Hogwarts," Sirius announced, as Remus slowly allowed me down from his arms, reading my emotions that I did not want to be carried anymore. "It's not like she'll be able to see Hogwarts anyways."

I was getting annoyed by all the chatter about things that I did not understand. But I stayed quiet because a tingling sensation soon echoed though my ears. I tried to shake my head to get ride of the annoyance and it did not work. I massaged my ears with my hands, trying to get it to go away, but it did not work. I slowly tilted my head back and forth, hoping to slowly get it to go away, but it did not work. It was nothing but an annoyance, but I tried to figure out if it meant something a little deeper.

I watched as Sirius, Lily, and Remus started to move towards the kitchen table, Remus pulling me along because he still held onto my hand. I slowly walked with him, knowing that he was being careful in his walk because he wanted to make sure that I was alright. Was he ever going to let me walk without holding my hand?

They all surrounded the table, taking their seats. Remus held out the chair for me so that I could sit down and I quietly position myself into a sitting position. I was still too lost in thought to make a sound.

"Delia," Remus finally spoke. "Are you okay?"

"Stop asking me that question." I was lifted from my trance.

"Well, you're just a little quiet." Oh, he didn't say it because of my illness.

"Just thinking."

"I should explain it all to you," he stated. Sirius and Lily had on expressions of mixed emotion, like anger, yet ridicule.

"Not now," Sirius disagreed. "Let me go talk to Dumbledore first, so I can make sure that Poppy can come."

Sirius soon stood and left the room. My mind was still clouded with questions; ones that Remus did not bother answering.

We sat in silence for what seemed like forever. Remus stared intently at me, and my eyes focused away from him. I was still angry at him for his mention to Sirius and he knew it. I was still trying to figure out what was going on.

Within moments Sirius came back, yet he was not alone. There was a woman with him, who like me had dark hair, but she was older. Much older, almost like my grandparents age, but I couldn't be sure.

"Where did she come from?" I asked, even though I knew it was a bit rude. Remus and his friends seemed to have a tendency to pop things out of thin air.

"Delia, right?" the lady asked me, as she and Sirius approached. Sirius looked rather irritated.

"Who are you?" I asked, frustrated that I had not been given answers to any of my questions.

"My name is Madam Pomfrey," she told me, as she took a seat at the table. "I'm a Healer."

At that point, I thought of her funny looking clothes. They were blue colored, and they looked like robes. And she said she was a Healer. It sounded like she was one of those strange people who did natural things to cure sick people. "Nothing's going to work," I told her. "I've tried just about everything. There's no cure."

"Delia, please," Remus whispered into my ear. The touch of his breath on my earlobe sent a warm sensation throughout my body, which caused me to calm down, thoughts and mood. "Just listen," he finished.

"How can you help me?" I asked, skeptically.

She stared at me, a little frightened by my words. There was no way that woman was going to be able to help, but if it made Remus feel better than I would cooperate.

She then pulled out a bag, which I guessed held all of her instruments. She took a peak through it and then she looked at me, waiting for me to cooperate.

She started to examine me, like all the other doctors had done. She had to know exactly what my problem was and she used her instruments carefully to look into my ears and eyes and even my mouth. She did a quick, throughout examination, more complete than many of the other doctors had done.

She actually impressed me by her thoroughness. She began to give me hope, before she abruptly told me, "I'm sorry, honey. There is no cure for this."

I told her. That's what they all said. I didn't know why Remus thought she could do better than the others. He just gave me a tiny bit of hope, of which did not help at all. Hearing those words again, just made me tear up once more.

"But, Ma'am," Remus sounded stunned. "There's nothing...-"

"This is past what our abilities can do," Pomfrey explained. "It's complex and just something that is not healable."

"You didn't even take any samples to a lab or anything," I was angry. She told me the prognosis so soon. All of the others took so long to do it.

"I don't need to do all of that," she stared at me, sympathetically. I was given that look all too often and I turned away as she faced me like that. "I know you might not believe me, but I know that this is not curable. I also know, regrettably, that you will not be able to hear a word in less than ten minutes."


	6. Chapter 6

Remus Lupin

What did I do? Why did I persist so vigorously to find a magical cure for Delia? Sirius was right. I should have thought about it more. I should have settled down from the initial shock of what was happening to Delia. Now I gave the girl hope that she could be healed, but again that was taken away from her. She had tears in her eyes because of me. I was a terrible person. I hurt her. Maybe I was truly a beast after all.

---

"Okay," Delia said in that sarcastic tone of hers, in response to Madam Pomfrey's warning. "Ten minutes… shall I time it?"

She doubted Pomfrey's abilities, but I did not. Even though Pomfrey did not have a cure for her, I knew that she was most likely correct about the ten minute assumption. "Delia," I murmured softly. "You need to trust her." Then, I realized that Delia probably couldn't hear my low tone, so I repeated it again. "Trust her, please."

"Yes, trust the woman that just told me that she can't do anything about this, after examining me for five minutes," Delia complained, absentmindedly. "That sounds like a good plan."

"At least pretend like it's true for the moment," I begged, staring intently at her grey eyes and holding onto her shaky hand. "Live like it's your last ten minutes of sound. Please do that for me."

"Fine," she grumbled, eventually giving in. "But just for you."

"May I interrupt?" Pomfrey suddenly asked, as our eyes backed away from one another.

"What?" Delia brusquely answered.

"I said that there's no cure, but I can do something to help," she offered. I was ready to listen. If there was anything that could help Delia, I was going to do it.

"I should talk to you alone," Pomfrey glanced at me with force in her tone. "Just you."

"This is my illness," Delia proclaimed. "I should be allowed to hear this."

"Delia, let me talk to her." I knew that it had something to do with magic. Something that Pomfrey did not want Delia to hear because we did not want to give away our secret of magic to her. It was too soon for that.

"Just talk softly and I won't hear a word."

Delia was in a terrible mood and I felt awful for having to leave her, but I had to. "Come on upstairs," I said quietly to Pomfrey, half-attempting to keep Delia from hearing.

We quietly walked up the steps and I led Pomfrey into my room. We closed the door and she began to explain to me what she was thinking.

"There's nothing that I can do to stop her loss of hearing and vision," Pomfrey explained. "If there was even a chance of something working, I'd tell you. I'd tell you too if I thought there was hope at St. Mungos, but there's nothing that can be done." I sighed, upset by those words. "But there is something that can help you and her. That is if you want to stay in touch with her. Sirius said that you've only known her for awhile. Are you going to stay in contact with her?"

"I think I love her," I admitted for the first time. If Sirius made a statement like that I probably would have laughed. I probably would have told him to shut up and eat something. And I couldn't even count the number of times that James said that to Lily, before he truly got to know her. I complained about it, telling him that it wasn't true love. But my statement was completely true, no matter how reckless and naïve it sounded.

"Love is a strong word," Pomfrey explained. "You have to be sure. I don't want for you to bring her into an aspect of our world if you're not sure."

"I love her," I repeated, more confidently.

"There is a spell," Pomfrey started to explain. "Something like Legillimens, but not quite as forceful. Actually it is quite the opposite as the spell. She will be able to hear your thoughts if you do it correctly."

"What about sight?" I asked, knowing that wasn't going to cure everything. I wanted to have it all covered.

"If you clearly think about what you are seeing she will be able to see everything from your point of view. She will not actually be able to see, it will be your thoughts that she sees, but it will be helpful."

"Teach me it," I demanded. This had to work out.

"Not now," she explained. "She has five minutes of sound left. You surely want to be there for her last five minutes, don't you?" she asked.

"Yes," I answered. "Thank you." I shoved the door open and raced down the stairs, as quickly as I could. I had to be there with her for that moment. I couldn't let her leave the world of sound without me by her side.

When I made it down the stairs, I approached Delia, who was still at the table, but now with tears in her eyes. I wanted to ask her if she was okay, but she had already asked me to stop asking that question.

Lily was sitting next to her at the table, with her arm on Delia's shoulder, like she was comforting her.

Delia's foggy eyes soon faced mine and she began to talk, "I think she's right. I felt this tingling sensation in my ears a little while ago and I felt it again just now. I think it may be going away."

I approached her more closely, walking back to her other side - where I sat before. I scooted my seat in closer and I grabbed a hold of her arm once more. Within no time she leaned her head into my chest and she fell into my grasp. I could feel her heart beating more quickly as the seconds wore on. I held onto her, protecting her from whatever harm was about to come.

And then I knew what I needed to do. I started to sing once more.

_You fill up my senses like a night in a forest  
Like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain,  
Like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean.  
You fill up my senses come fill me again._

Come let me love you, let me give my life to you,  
Let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms,  
Let me lay down beside you, let me always be with you.  
Come let me love you, come love me again. 

"I love you," she said as soon as I finished singing in my terrible tone.

"I love you more," I responded, holding her tight.

She soon lifted her head up and pressed her lips against mine.

Her kiss was the most beautiful feeling in the world.

---

I could not leave the beach that summer. I was supposed to be searching for a job… for any place that would hire a werewolf. But she came into my life. And she needed me more than I needed to find a job. She was going to be there just for the summer. What did it matter if I just extended my vacation a little bit longer?

James, Lily, Peter, and Sirius left a week later than they were supposed to. I stayed for her. She did lose her hearing that moment, right after our kiss, and she needed me. She didn't want to admit it because of her independent nature, but she needed me.

The biggest problem came two weeks after I met her - during that time when the moon is the brightest. As much as I was used to it, it pained me to have to transform when she needed me, but James and Lily came to watch Delia that night, and Sirius and Peter helped me as I took my place in the Shrieking Shack again.

The next full moon I did the same thing, but it was just a Lily and Delia night. The two became relatively good friends right away, though Delia told me that she thought Lily was quite bland at first. As the two got to know each other, their opinions of each other transformed into something deeper.

The first major milestone between the two came when Delia admitted to Lily about her illness. Even though Lily had been there for the Pomfrey confrontation, Delia did not say much to her about it for awhile. And she begged me not to say a thing either. I think that Lily figured it out before Delia told her, but it was still a big step for Delia to admit everything.

Sirius turned into the most annoying detractor of my relationship. He always supported James and Lily, but he did not want me to stay with Delia. I could not understand it because I didn't think that he would be so cruel… to not like someone because of what she was going through – her blindness and deafness. But he was acting like a true Black with his prejudices. He really annoyed me during those summer days.

My relationship with Delia was amazing. Every day I woke up with a smile on my face, looking forward to the day. Delia could not hear during those days because I decided to wait to use Pomfrey's spell, but she could see me. And that was enough, even if her sight was a bit foggy.

Pomfrey also told her that her sight was not going to leave her in the same way that her hearing did. It would get worse every day, and eventually fade. She secretly told me that the she would lose it all before the summer ended. But at least it was a gradual thing. And at least we had some time.

We laid out on a towel in front of our cliff. Long ago we named it The Tiger Wolf, nothing particularly meaningful to outsiders, but meaningful to us, even if it did not make sense to name a cliff.

We were lying on our stomachs, staring at the ocean, hands held tightly together like the bars of a jail cell. We took our breaths together, each one deep and peaceful, enjoying each second of every moment.

Her head turned towards mine. As soon as I noticed, I turned my head towards hers as well, staring into her beautiful eyes, however foggy they were at that point. She stared closely at me, lost in a daze for several moments. I did not want to interrupt the beautiful stare, but eventually I gave in.

_Why are you staring so intently? _I scribbled in large font so that she could see, on the sheet of paper that I always kept by my side.

"I want to remember your face," she said in a voice that was no longer clear and that was rather loud.

_You will, _I wrote back to her with confidence.

"I can't see the colour of your eyes anymore," she said sadly. "I can barely see that you even have eyes."

I took my arm and I wrapped it around her, as the wind swept by, chilling us both for a moment.

_Can you see this? _I wrote, allowing her to see the message, before I pressed my lips against hers.

"No, but I can feel it," she answered as soon as we broke apart.

_That's all that matters, _I scribbled again.

---

So is love at first sight really possibly these days? In a twisted type of way, I think it is.

---

AN: Lyrics are again not by me, but by John Denver – Annie's Song.


	7. Chapter 7

Delia Ainsworth

I opened my eyes. Nope, nothing there. I turned my body, my arms feeling out for the man who was supposed to be there right next to me, but I couldn't feel anything. He wasn't there.

_Crap. _

What was I supposed to do?

We hadn't planned on that. He said he would be there… to guide me through the day… my first day without sight or sound. In the night everything went away completely and he promised that he would be around to help me. He promised that he would help me out better than my father could. That's why I agreed to spend the night with him instead of my father.

But he was not there. What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to find him?

"Remus!" I shouted, but I could not actually hear. I felt the vibrations of my voice echoing in the room, as I desperately needed his touch. I was so dependent on him. I did not like being dependent on other people. But there was nothing else that I could do.

I tried to stand up from the bed. I pointed my arms out, dependent on feeling for the edge of the bed, so I could know where to move my legs to achieve the status of being on floor level.

I twisted and turned and it felt like I found the correct position, but as one leg found its way over the edge, it pulled the other one too strongly and suddenly I plopped onto the ground, my butt hitting it with a characteristic loud boom.

It was my first try. I would do better. I had to do better.

I positioned myself on my knees, putting my arms on the floor so that I could push myself up and as I was halfway there I put my left hand on the bed to push up with further support. I made it to my feet by myself and I was quite proud. Not a bad start.

I put my hands out in front of me, ready to walk. I was still wondering where Remus was, but I could do it on my own. I had to learn somehow. He would not be there for me every single moment of my life, even if he said he would.

I started walking, slowly and hesitantly, but I was walking. My two feet were moving in slow steps, aiming to just move. But then, I ran into the wall, my hands colliding with the hard surface. I tried to push myself further, but my hands were tied to the wall and I was not a superhero. I could not push the wall down.

I turned, sighing, but still alive, sensing that I could make it to wherever I wanted to go. But then I realized that I did not know where I wanted to end up. _Where was I supposed to go? _

Making it out of the room had to be my first objective. I could decide from there what I wanted to do.

I let my arms guide me again, hoping that there wasn't anything on the floor to trip me or to cause me to fall. I knew there shouldn't be because Remus made sure of that, but I was still worried. The difference between blurred vision, even very terribly blurred vision, and no vision was phenomenal. It was the difference between independence and dependence.

I continued to walk, turning myself around to make sure that I was walking to the door. It had to be in the opposite direction of the wall, so I should have been walking in the correct direction.

My hands pressed against the bed and I readjusted my position slightly. I continued to walk, with the hope that I would make it to the door.

I knew that I was slow. I had tried to practice from getting to the bed to the door with my eyes closed before, but this was different. This was real. I could not open my eyes to cheat, so this was slower.

But I did make it. I felt the doorknob, cold and slippery and I took a moment to pause... to recollect my thoughts…

I still wondered where Remus was. He promised he would not leave me. He was as loyal as a dog and this was the first time that he had ever truly disappointed me. I needed him and he was not there.

I thought of where I wanted to go. Down the stairs? That would be tricky. I had tried it before, but that was with Remus there. And it's not like it was a successful try. If Remus wasn't there I would have fallen down a long set of stairs, probably landing on my face and requiring a trip to the ER.

But where else was I supposed to go? I needed to learn it sometime.

I remembered the track to the stairs. It should just be a slight right, and then a gentle journey straight. I kept my arms in front of me to be sure and each step I took was slight, as I was worried that I was going to find the stairs sooner than I expected.

Soon I stumbled upon the banister. I grabbed a hold of it with both my hands and I knew that I stood at the top of the stairs. I took a deep breath before I decided to continue.

I placed my right foot forward, knowing that it would go down a few meters and I carefully let it drop.

_Not bad._

I repeated the action with my right foot, carefully dropping it down, but I dropped it down a little too quickly, and I stumbled on my feet. I felt a breeze quickly rush past me as I started to fall forward, taking a grasp of the banister as tightly as I could, so that I would not fall completely.

Suddenly, a touch startled me and I instantly knew what that meant. He was in front of me and I felt confident enough to take my grip off of the banister. I feel forward into his arms and I smiled as I felt his touch once again. I was safe.

He picked me up, carried me down the stairs slowly, but efficiently. I couldn't tell his emotion at that point, and I slowly lifted my hand to touch his face to see if I could feel his emotion.

I lifted my hand slowly across his face, first feeling his chin and then going up slowly to his mouth, where I would be able to read the emotion the best. As I was feeling his feelings, he crouched slightly, positioning himself onto the couch, me in his lap. I thought that he would immediately take my hand off of his face, but he was patient as he waited for me to observe him.

At first I felt his lips as they were slanted, the corners falling towards the ground, frowning. But as I continued to touch them, the position changed. His lips formed a smile. He was telling me that he was happy.

I took my hand off of his face and I spoke, "I love you."

He took my hand and he pulled it up closer to him. He pulled back on all of my fingers so that only my pointer finger was forward and he pressed it against his eye. He then brought my hand down, and pressed it against my chest, specifically near my heart. He finally exposed my pointer finger again and pointed it to my head. _I love you._

I leaned back against him in his arms, and he held me tightly, squeezing me a little bit too hard, but I did not mind. We sat there for several seconds, just thinking and breathing.

I did not know what our next step would be, but I did not care for the moment. I was peaceful, just resting in his arms.

I tried to remember his voice. I last heard it a long time ago, several months, and my last remaining sound was of him. I was not exposed to his beautiful voice or his beautiful face for long enough. I had to do my best to remember what he sounded like and what he looked like, but I could not remember his voice completely. That meant that in months his face would be lost. I did not want that to forget his beautiful face.

"I'm sorry," I soon heard a voice in my mind that reminded me of his voice. But it couldn't be. Unless I was trying so hard to remember that I actually did. "I shouldn't have left you this morning."

The voice sounded so familiar, so distinct. Yet, it could not really be his. I had gone deaf awhile ago. My hearing couldn't have just suddenly come back. It didn't work that way.

"This is really me by the way," the voice spoke again. How was I to be sure that it was him? "Just say something out loud and I'll respond."

"Remus," I spoke.

"Yes?" the voice spoke back.

That was just luck. "Where were you?"

"I was getting breakfast," the voice responded.

Okay, weird. But I wanted to make sure that it wasn't just me making up the answers. "Take me to it," I said, without much description. I would believe it if he took me to the breakfast.

And he did. Without further thought he carried me to the table and he put food in front of me, telling me in my head to eat. He had placed a spoon in my hand, but I still was not quite sure what to do. I did not know what I was eating and where it was.

"What am I eating?" I asked, waiting for the little voice to pop up and answer me.

"Oh, I should fix that too," he answered, confusing me. But soon he stood behind me and placed his arms on the back of the chair. Seconds passed, while I wondered what he was doing, but then it was all clear.

I could see like I could when I was younger. I could not even remember the last time I could see that well. I saw a bowl in front of me, filled with some type of cereal, which made me wonder why he had left to get breakfast, when it was only cereal. I could see the cottage that I remembered as being relatively nice, but in actuality looked like a dump, like he had told me it was.

"What's going on?" I asked him. He seemed to know exactly what was happening. "Why can I see and hear?" But as I said that I realized that I could not even hear my own voice.

"It's in your mind," he told me. "You can hear what I want to say to you and you can see things from my perspective. If I change positions and look at something else, like you, you'll see yourself."

"That's weird," I told him.

"I'll try to keep my thoughts closed so that you don't see yourself too often," he told me. "I know that might get annoying."

"Why is this happening?" I asked, still confused.

"I'll explain that to you later," he proclaimed. "But for now we should enjoy this moment."

"Is this what Madam Pomfrey told you to do?" questions continued to fly out my mouth.

"Yes," he answered. "I know it's weird, but just trust me on this for now. I promise I will explain it to you."

I was comforted by his words and I did trust him. There was a reasonable explanation, but I did want to enjoy it for the moment. "How will I ever get to see your face again?" I asked.

"Come with me," he told me. I stood up and he took my hand as we started to walk. It was a bit odd the way I was walking because I was standing next to him and he was the one with my vision. Everything that I walked past was slightly to the left.

As we continued to walk, I realized where he was taking me. We approached the mirror slowly and I saw his reflection… his beautiful blue eyes staring intently and his light brown hair combed perfectly straight. He was even more beautiful than I remembered.

"What about when you're not here?" I asked him, knowing that he would be my means of communication. I was even more dependent on him than I thought I would be.

"Hopefully that won't happen too often," he told me and I smiled. "But I have a plan for that. That was actually another reason I was missing. Come here, Padfoot!"

A large black dog came racing to me, his black hair messy and ragged, which somewhat reminded me of Remus's friend, Sirius. And suddenly I remembered, "Isn't that what you call Sirius?"

"Yeah," Remus instantly answered. "And now you know why. Don't you think they look pretty similar?"

"I was just thinking that they did," I laughed.

"Well our friend got this dog," Remus started to explain. "And when we saw him for the first time we saw the similarities, so we decided to start calling him that."

"That's pretty funny, seeing as Sirius is the Dog Star and all," I made the connection.

"Yeah," Remus quietly laughed.

"That boy doesn't like me, does he?" I suddenly asked, as I scratched Padfoot's head.

"He does," Remus went on to explain. "I didn't think he did either, but he really does. He was just being protective for your sake. He thought that I would be putting you in danger because of the world that I live in, but that won't happen. I'll always be here to protect you. I think he gets that now."

"I know you'll always be there for me," I said. "Thank you."

He answered by pulling me closer to him, and holding onto my hand.

"Now this is a nice dog and all," I started to realize. "But why do you think he can help me."

"He's a seeing eye dog," Remus explained. "Or at least he knows how to be." Remus pulled out a brown leather harness and put it on the dog. "He's a very smart dog. You can just tell him a command or a place where you want to go and he'll do it."

"Sure," I said, doubting Remus. Some things that boy said were just odd.

"Okay, I'll show you," he responded. "Padfoot, open your mouth."

The dog approached me closer and opened his mouth. So he really did listen well.

But then I looked closer into his mouth and I saw a shiny object inside, like a ring.

Remus turned me around at that point, making me face the mirror. He stared into the mirror, showing himself on one knee. "Delia, I do not think I could live my life without you. From the moment I met you I knew there was something special about you. Something that I could not quite understand, but as I grew to know you I found that you are the most beautiful, charming, and loveable woman. I love you. Delia Ainsworth, will you marry me?"

Tears emerged from my eyes, streaming down my face. I saw the ring that was quite slobbery, but precious in Remus's grasp. He held it in front of me, waiting for me to respond, but I could not speak.

I soon saw a familiar face emerge into the mirror. I saw his lips move and I waited for Remus to interpret. "Your father says to say yes already."

"Yes," I answered, knowing that Remus made sure that my father gave permission before asking me. "Yes," I repeated making sure that he heard. He slipped the dazzling jewel onto my finger and he stared into it, giving me the in-depth view of the ring.

---

Do you really know what it feels like to get lost in the sense that you cannot see what you're looking for? Because I know what it feels like and it feels pretty darn good.


End file.
